Senator says Pentagon budget inadequate for world threats

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Monday slammed recent cuts to the defense budget, comparing the current environment to the run up to Adolf Hitler taking control of Germany.

The Arkansas Republican quoted a Winston Churchill 1933 speech, during which the late British prime minister warned against a military drawing down. 

{mosads}”Tragically, Great Britain and the West didn’t heed this warning, when they might have strangled that monster in his crib. Rather, they let the locusts continue to eat away at the common defense,” Cotton said during his first speech from the Senate floor. “Today, perhaps most tragically because we ought to benefit from these lessons of history, the United States is again engaged in something of a grand experiment of the kind we saw in the 1930s.” 

Cotton suggested that the cuts to the defense budget have put the military at the “breaking point,” while also doing little to help drive down U.S. debt. 

The administration requested $534 billion for the Defense Department’s fiscal year 2016 base budget.

While Cotton didn’t have an exact figure for what he thinks the department’s budget should be, he said that it should be “substantially more” than the $611 billion budget recommended by the National Defense Panel. 

“$611 billion is necessary, but it’s not sufficient,” Cotton said. He added that the Navy likely needs 350 ships, the Army needs 490,000 active-duty troops, the Marine Corps needs 182,000 Marines and the Air Force needs more aircraft “of virtually every type.” 

Cotton’s speech comes as Senate defense hawks are calling for budget caps on the department to be lifted. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said the Pentagon’s FY16 budget should be $577 billion. 

Cotton argued that additional defense spending would help deter military action against the United States. 

“The best way to avoid war is to be willing and prepared to fight a war in the first place. That’s the alternative: military strength and moral confidence in the defense of America’s national security,” he said.  “Our enemies and allies alike must know that aggressors will pay an unspeakable price for challenging the United States.”

In addition to criticizing the cuts to the defense budget, the Arkansas Republican also hit the administration on multiple foreign policy fronts including nuclear negotiations with Iran. 

Cotton has been under the media’s spotlight during recent weeks after he spearheaded a letter to Iranian leadership that suggested any deal over its nuclear program could be overturned after President Obama left office. 

“My objections to the ongoing nuclear negotiations are well known and need not be rehearsed at length here,” he said, referring to the letter.